NAME¶
fdesign - Forms Library User Interface Designer
SYNOPSIS¶
fdesign [-xformoptions] [-options] [files]
DESCRIPTION¶
fdesign is a GUI builder that helps the construction of graphical user
interface in a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) way by allowing the user
to directly manipulate various objects, such as buttons, sliders and menus
etc. Once a satisfactory UI is constructed, the user can save the composed
interface into an external file containing some program code. When compiled,
linked with the
Forms Library, and executed, the generated code would,
at run time (or print time for PostScript output), construct the exact same
interfaces as those seen within
fdesign.
A variety of output language is possible via external filters. As of this
writing, C, perl, ada95, Fortran, pascal, and PostScript output filters are
known to exist.
OPTIONS¶
fdesign accepts all standard
Forms Library command line options as
well as the following:
- -help
- Prints a brief summary of all command line options. This
option does not require a connection to the X server.
- -version
- Prints the current version of fdesign and
exits.
- -geometry geom
- Specifies the prefered size and location of main working
area in which the UI is to be constructed.
- -convert fdfile-list
- This option prevents fdesign from attempting to make
a connection to the X server. The file list following this flag is
converted to C code directly.
- -dir destdir
- output any converted files in destdir.
- -unit pixel|point|mm|cp|cmm
- selects the unit of measure for object geometries. For
non-pixel unit, the interface created is screen resolution independent and
may be desirable for many applications. Note that for typical screens,
point (about 1/72 inch) and mm may be too coarse and subject
to round-off errors. Use cp (centi-point, 100th of a point) and
cmm (centi-mm) instead.
- -altformat
- selects an alternative format for the generated C code
where global variables are used for the UI components.
- -main
- requests the output of main program template.
- -callback
- requests the output of callback function template.
- -compensate
- requests the emission of font/server resolution variation
compensation code.
- -I headerfile
- uses an alternative header file instead of the default
forms.h in the output C code.
- -lax
- requests relaxed C syntax checking.
- -ps
- This option specifies that instead of emitting the c code
for the user interface, PostScript code should be emitted.
- -ada
- This option requests ada95 code output
- -perl
- This option requests perl code output.
- -fortran
- This option requests Fortran code output.
- -pascal
- This option requests pascal code output.
- -nocode
- suppresses the output of UI code. Only the .fd file is
written.
The most useful
Forms Library command line options are
- -display host:dpy
- This option specifies the X server to connect.
- -flversion
- This option prints the version string of the Forms
Library, with which fdesign was build.
- -name appname
- This option specifies the application name under which
resources are to be obtained, instead of the executable name.
appname should not contain . or *. fdesign.
RESOURCES¶
The program understands all of the
Forms Library's resource names and
classes as well as the following
- control.geometry (class Control.Geometry)
- specifies the geometry of the control panel. Currently the
size is ignored.
- unit (Unit)
- specifies the default unit of measure. Default is pixel.
- attributes.geometry (class Attributes.Geometry)
- specifies the geometry of the object attributes panel.
Currently the size is ignored.
- align.geometry (class Align.Geometry)
- specifies the geometry of the object align panel. Currently
the size is ignored.
- xformsHeader (class XFormsHeader)
- specifies the header filename generated in the output C
code. Default is forms.h
- filter (class Filter)
- specifies post-processing filter (an external executable
name).
- language (class Language)
- specifies target language name.
Among the standard
Forms Library resources, the following are most useful
- xform.fontsize (class XFORM.FontSize)
- specifies the font size used for most object labels.
- xform.pupfontsize (class XFORM.PupFontSize)
- specifies the font size used in pop-up menus.
- xform.browserFontSize (class XFORM.BrowserFontSize)
- specifies the font size used for the text inside a browser.
SEE ALSO¶
xforms(5), fd2ps(1L)
AUTHOR¶
Copyright (c) 1996-2002 T.C. Zhao <tc_zhao@yahoo.com> and Mark Overmars
<markov@cs.ruu.nl>
Since 2002: GNU Lesser General Public License
Maintainers: Jean-Marc Lasgouttes, Angus Leeming and Jens Thoms Toerring
<jt@toerring.de>
HOME PAGE¶
http://xforms-toolkit.org
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/xforms/